


The Nurture of the Beyond

by I_dont_have_a_name_yet



Series: The Unnoticed [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternative Timeline, Anxiety Attacks, BAMF!Klaus Hargreeves, BAMF!Vanya Hargreeves, Bad ghosts, Blood, Cannon Divergent, Description of wounds, Kid characters, Multiple Pov, No Incest, Non Cannon-Compliant, Numbers for names, Pianist Klaus, Pills, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Stuttering Diego Hargreeves, Swearing, Tags added along the way, Temporary Character Death, This is going to be long, Violinist Vanya, attempts at humor, but its Klaus, nice ghosts, slight gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:33:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22861066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_dont_have_a_name_yet/pseuds/I_dont_have_a_name_yet
Summary: In another life, he’d imagine that he would have been swallowed by the terrors, the constant hauntings and the sheer impossibility of pretending to be as supposedly ‘ordinary’ as his dear sister, while the countless souls taught him their ways. But not in this timeline. He wouldn’t let it come to that.Or:My excuse to write a powerful but underrated Klaus, who’s bonding with a just as powerful and underrated Vanya.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves & Original Characters, Klaus Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves, Vanya Hargreeves & The Hargreeves
Series: The Unnoticed [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643380
Comments: 102
Kudos: 470





	1. Prologue

Some might say that Number Four Hargreeves showed quite strange behavioural patterns, even for a mere toddler. Of course, those people would be absolutely right. 

No ordinary toddler led seemingly one-sided conversations throughout the entirety of the day, to the point where said toddler could speak and understand English far earlier than any of his siblings (though it wasn’t only English, if you paid close attention, you’d hear fragments of German, French and Spanish spliced into the constant chatter) and that with a far more extended vocabulary than all of them —even Number Five— combined. 

Another extraordinary feat were his mimic and movements, such as his eyes following invisible trails in his bland, four-wall compartment called ‘room’— it lacked in personality or even indicators of a residing toddler beyond a mostly unoccupied toddler bed and a wooden closet— and he would spontaneously burst out in gleeful laughter that shook his tiny body with joy and then be completely calm in the next moment. 

Number Four, in contrast to his room, also seemed to develop personality quirks just as early as his conversational skills. So while chattering his free time away he used his whole body to convey the emotions of his tale or even what looked to be a long winding response. 

What was he responding to? No one knew. Nobody was even aware of Number Fours early and extraordinary developments except for the odd nanny or two, but they didn’t matter, as they would, just as any other preceding or following them, quit after less than a week and never return. You honestly couldn’t blame them for it either. Nursing and raising seven children can be daunting to anyone, even more so if five of them had legitimate superpowers (“Put me down! Right now! This wasn’t in the job description!” 

“Whoa, come on little one, put that knife down and nobody’ll get hurt! Very well! Wait, what? How did you get so many knives?”

“Of course you can have all the cookies… wait no… what  _ was  _ that…”

“Shut up! Seriously, what are you talking about? Who are you talking to? Someone get this kid a shrink before I need one! 

“ _ Where is he?!” _

“What is that coming out of his stomach? You know what I shouldn’t’ve asked. I quit…”

“Come on little Number Seven! Eat your Oatmeal before it gets cold!”)

Though the one person who should’ve noticed his wards strange behaviour, Reginald Hargreeves, didn’t possess a single quality a good guardian usually showed and disregarded him or simply neglected to notice anything.

Not even his siblings were aware of this precarious situation their brother had found himself in. You couldn’t blame them either. Every single one of them was focussed on their own power, which was fair enough, so they, just as their Guardian, simply paid no mind to their bubbly, loud and emotional brother (and did the same to their quiet, mousy sister who tended to stay in the background of everything).

Those who did notice the toddler were the countless ones telling him stories, making him laugh, scream, cry, squeal and converse. They were drawn to his warm and grounding aura, his welcoming nature and open mindedness. He was accepting.

He didn’t dismiss or ignore them. Even the ones too far gone to carry any semblance to their former selves.

Number Four treated them like his own so they did the same to him and as long as he didn’t close himself of or fear them it shall stay that way for eternity. 

Beyond the countless souls however, Numbers Four and Seven were completely shrugged under the proverbial rug of life and brushed aside. Why should any living, breathing soul pay any attention to them, anyway?

Why would anyone do that when they could pay attention to One, Two, Three, Five and Six? 

Because as it turns out Numbers Four and Seven didn’t have any kind of special powers, so next to their siblings they looked downright ordinary. 


	2. A Powerless Tune

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically Prologue 2.0 but the plot actually starts this time, it’s even more filled with ghosts and there are also instruments.

There are several decisions a being can make to influence their life or the ones of those around them.

Sometimes those decisions can be minuscule or they may seem insignificant at the time. After all, who can truly predict the future without having experienced it?

Other times those decisions can be considered major, life changing ones even while you choose. 

Like pretending you’re powerless in front of your billionaire Guardian, who only adopted you and your siblings because of the  correct  assumption that you have some kind of special power.

It can be foolish to make these decisions on your own, without consulting anyone else. 

But who said Number Four Hargreeves didn’t consult anyone else in that matter?

The young boy probably consulted more people on that matter–well, it was more like they convinced him, but who cares about such a tiny detail?– then there were living in a four (hah) mile radius around the elusive Umbrella Academy, founded by mysterious billionaire Reginald Hargreeves. 

At first the media went wild after the sudden adoption of seven children and every single aspect of the then unnamed Academy. But the research and investments of the reporters were fruitless, so they soon lost interest and the Academy faded from the public’s mind.

Who knows what would’ve happened if Reginald had agreed to even a single interview and informed the public that every single one of his  soldiers children already showed potential of expected superpowers. 

Well, all with the exception of two. In comparison to Numbers One through Three as well as Five and Six, Numbers Four and Seven seemed to be completely ordinary. At least, that was what Reginald told his  soldiers children when Four and Seven didn’t show up for any training sessions. 

The children accepted this easily and without much thought because it meant less competition for their father's attention and affection.

* * *

  
  
  


“Enough lazing around! Get in formation! Number Five, you’ll fight against Number Six. Number One, you’ll fight against Number Two and Number Three” the stern and emotionless voice of Sir Hargreeves rang out across the training room and in a show of rare absolute defiance, said children went into formation and started training without any other words –aside from Ones and Twos usual arguing and Three telling them to cut it out. 

Outside the room were four (hah) figures, two of them human, one of them primate and the other robot. Both non-human figures looked at the scene with impassive expressions while the humans scowled and smiled respectively. 

You see, Number Seven likes her siblings, sure, and she was happy for them and their future superhero-isms but she didn’t like how she was pushed aside recently.

She also wanted to be part of the family dynamic. She also wanted some kind, any kind, of power (Maybe she even had one but they just didn’t know?). She just wanted to be part of something and not be left out as if she was useless. 

Next to her stood Number Four, though in contrast to his sister he was grinning like a mad fool, though nobody paid any mind to it, it was only usual Number Four behaviour! Being loud and silly and annoying his siblings! Talking to thin air! Who in their right mind does that? And why would he do that? 

Well, the answer is actually really easy, considering that the ‘thin air’ Four liked to talk to was in fact filled with ghosts, whose personal mission seemed to be getting Four as far away from his Guardian as possible without him acting suspicious. That turned out to be a difficult feat in and of itself.

It proved to be even harder to actively hide his powers from Reginald but somehow he managed to do just that.

So here he stood, six years old, seemingly powerless and watching most of his sibling train to be lethal while all around him people, no, ghosts congratulated him on what a good job he had done. He smiled. He didn’t know why the ghosts didn’t want him to train with the others–it kind of looked like fun in his humble opinion–but he was delighted that the ghosts were proud of him. 

And if the ghosts said it would be better that way it just had to be, right? They wouldn’t want any harm to come to him, right? 

Well, there were also the really gross ones who got all up in his face and  _ just wouldn’t stop screaming, _ which obviously left him with ringing ears and what looked like temporary tinnitus on the outside. But those ghosts–he liked to call them Geister for differentiation– were far and few in between all the warm (metaphorically warm; every ghost and Geist brought a certain chill of death with them) and welcoming ghosts who just wanted somebody, anybody, to listen to their life-stories  _ so badly.  _ If that person also actually heard them and engaged them, great, awesome! 

They found that person, one by one (how could they not? He was like a beacon for them, they couldn’t help themselves, even if they wanted to) and he turned out to be a small, fragile child in a household unfit for any human. (Reginald didn’t count as a human in the ghosts' eyes, especially the ones who used to work for him.)

They could practically  _ feel  _ the toxicity oozing off of this man and made it their mission to protect their little, vulnerable one from his claws of manipulation and abuse. They didn’t like the idea of  _ their precious Four  _ being trained to be a soldier, so hiding that he had powers in the first place was the best course of action. 

~~_ Of course none of the ghosts knew that this major decision would prevent the extinction of humanity and all living beings...they just knew that it would change a lot _ ~~

It took some time to convince Four of this.

“But I like talking to you and playing with my siblings!” He pouted and crossed his arms across his chest. 

“I know, I know, my little one. But think about it this way: you’ll still be able to talk to us and play with your siblings, just not both at the same time,” a former nanny tried to coax him while repeating the motion of petting his hair (not that it actually did anything) “doesn’t sound too hard, right? You can do that for us, don’t you?”

Number Four tilted his head downwards and thought about the innocent request the nice ghost nanny made. “It’ll make you really happy?”

Ghost nanny nodded very enthusiastically in agreement, seeing this as the one and only chance to possibly save this child. 

“Yes, it would be the best thing to do to make us very happy and very proud of you! Alright, how about—”

Four couldn‘t hear anything after that because some intrusive, disrespectful,  _ loud  _ Geister decided that they’ve stopped tormenting a small child for long enough and continued to wallow in their misery and drown out anything and anyone else trying to reach him.

* * *

Seven looked from her siblings currently training, to her dad, up to a certain monkey butler and robot mom, then, last but not least to her brother standing next to her.

She opened her mouth, trying to start a conversation but quickly closed it again after about ten seconds, realising that she had nothing to say, or at least thought it wasn’t important enough to say and that he’d in turn be annoyed by her. Instead she turned to her new mom(?). 

“What is it dearie?” she asked with an unsettlingly perfect smile. 

“Well,” she had her hands clasped tightly behind her back “do I need to watch them training? I want to practice my violin a bit more…” her voice turned from quiet and shy to downright mousy at the end of the sentence. 

At that, Graces smile turned into something softer, something human. “Of course honey. Just don’t get too caught up in your playing and forget to take your pills.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, Seven saw Four looking to the side with his head inclined as if he was intently listening to someone but she told herself it didn’t matter and headed upstairs. 

* * *

  
  


“You know, maybe you should also take something like an instrument up or you’ll be bored to death. And trust me, that is such an undermined way to die, I would know.” 

Four mulled over the words of the new (and very gory) ghost. He almost thought he was a Geist just by how mutilated the ghost was. Guts hanging out, dripping ghost blood on the floor (not that anybody–except him–would notice it anyway), significant chunks of flesh were missing, to the point where you could clearly see his bones, and a messy cut diagonally across his face. Four knew that whoever the ghost was while alive, he sure as hell didn’t die peacefully or while ‘bored’. 

Though he personally couldn’t complain. As long as the spirits remained civil he could handle them, even if he had to suppress the occasional wince or scream at their extent of deathly body horror. And yes, sometimes his ears were ringing for hours on end if the ghosts and Geister felt especially keen on wallowing in their self-pity. 

But that didn’t matter as long as they couldn’t physically hurt him. 

He quickly looked around and after seeing that nobody paid him any kind of attention, he slinked out of the room with practised ease. Sure, he liked attention but honestly, sometimes he just wanted some peace and quiet (well, as much as he could get). 

“Where would I even find an instrument in this house? Sure, there’s Sevens violin but I can’t just take it away from her! That would be mean and not in a funny way.” Four whispered to the ghost of the mangled man who suggested the idea in the first place. 

The ghost, who seemed to have died in his early twenties, looked around the hallway they were currently standing in as if an instrument would suddenly appear out of thin air. 

“Well, first you need to know what you want to play in the first place. Saxophone or piano, flute or guitar. All of those are very different. What general genre do you even want to play?” 

Four was a bit overwhelmed by all the possible options but after a moment of consideration which consisted of various indecipherable hand gestures, including the classic stroking of an invisible beard, he snapped his fingers with way too much flair. 

“I really want to play along with Seven at one point, she looks really lonely…” 

Gory Ghost clapped his hands, somehow with even more flair than Fours finger snap– probably to show him up in some way, which  _ rude, okay? _ . 

Four wiped the not-there splatters of ghost blood, that ended up flying everywhere because of the dramatic hand clap, from his face and raised an eyebrow that would make even Five proud at the only spirit present that he paid any attention to. “Well? What is it?” 

The ghost, Four should ask him what his name is (was?), float-walked in front of Four and gestured for the boy to follow him. 

“Lucky for you, I got just the right thing” was the only thing the ghost said before picking up a pace Four had trouble keeping up with. 

* * *

They tracked through what felt like the majority of the mansion when ghost man suddenly stopped and turned to Four. 

He opened his mouth with a very smug expression on his face, though it came off as intimidating instead of confident because of the cut across his face. Not that Four would notice. 

Said boy had his shoulders hunched up, hazy eyes tilted towards the floor and last but not least, he had his hands tightly clasped over his ears in an attempt to ignore the entourage of ghost following his every step and  _ begging _ **_screamingWAILING_ ** at him to the point where he genuinely feared for hearing loss. 

The ghosts were jealous. They didn’t like the new one. They didn’t like the attention Four was giving him. Some of them couldn’t care much about it specifically. They just wanted attention. ‘Why wasn’t he giving them attention?’ they were probably trying to scream at him. To get his attention. They probably didn’t even realise that  _ every single one of them was screaming at the same time _ . 

Four couldn’t handle it. 

It was too much.

Was this some kind of punishment? 

What had he done to deserve this?

Was he bad? 

Was he cursed? 

Maybe he should just—

A sudden ice cold sensation ripped him out of his spiralling thoughts. The spirits didn’t quiet down in the slightest, but at least he could properly breathe again (when had it become laboured?). 

He looked to the source of the sensation and realised it was Gory Ghost (seriously, what’s his name?), whose hand was located on– well, more like through his shoulder. 

He then took in his surroundings and raised an eyebrow. This was a part of the mansion he had never been to, completely unfamiliar and eerie. 

It was a simple hallway. Or, it should seem that way but the general atmosphere of it settled something uncomfortable deeply in Fours bones. 

There was just something  _ off  _ about it. As if he’d seen it before and gotten used to it and then suddenly, out of nowhere everything turned a shade darker and lighter at the same time. 

As if someone replaced all the furniture with exact copies. He really didn’t like it. 

The only welcoming object, he realised, was the door in front of him, hidden away at the end of the hallway, almost in an alcove, as if someone was trying to obscure its very existence. 

Why someone, probably Sir, would do something like this, Four didn’t know. 

It was practically coaxing him to enter the room and explore it. He really wanted to. He really wanted the strange warmth the room seemed to emit to envelop him and never leave. 

Four turned to Double G (Gory Ghost) and inclined his head towards the heavenly door with a borderline pleading expression, not daring to speak against the wall noise of the spirit entourage hadn’t ceased creating. 

Double G nodded in agreement, not using his voice either in complete sympathy and understanding for the situation. He gave Four what was most likely supposed to be a reassuring smile but was more of an unintentional grimace. Again, messy, diagonal cuts directly across the face can do that to someone. But Four really couldn’t care less as he bounded out of the eerie hallway and into a room that  _ wanted _ him. 

Though what he saw was definitely not what he expected. He didn’t even know  _ what exactly  _ he expected… it certainly wasn’t this. Now that he thought about it he imagined maybe a small cupboard or something equally claustrophobic or even some cozy little reading corner of a room with a fireplace, something Six would definitely love. 

Not this. 

Four was aware that instruments took up a lot of space, especially drums and pianos but this… 

It wasn't really a room as much as a ballroom . Something you’d imagine being in a renaissance castle, all marble floor, open space and lavish windows that let through nonexistent warm sunlight.

And right in the middle stood a  _ gorgeous, pitch black pian _ o. 

With a start Four realised that it wasn’t the room itself that called to him but the piano in front of him. 

“What…” he took one tentative step after another towards it and its call increased. 

It didn’t say Four but he knew immediately that it was there for him and  _ him alone _ . 

Four let his fingertips gently glide over the lid, still disregarding the noises  _ behindaroundinsideandoutside  _ him and went on to lift the lid. 

As soon as the wood of it made contact with a soft  _ thud  _ they  _ stopped.  _

Startled by the almost suffocating silence Four looked around, barely gathering enough courage to do so. 

Again, he didn’t know what to expect.

But it wasn’t for every single spirit (including Geister) to stare at him so intently it made his skin crawl and settled an ever present cold directly into his bones. 

“Can,” he hesitantly asked someone. He himself wasn’t sure who he was asking. “Can you teach me?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and had a good time reading it!  
> I really have to thank you for all the positive attention it got on the Prologue, I really didn’t expect it! Thank you so much :)  
> Anyway, I’ll hopefully have the next chapter out by Saturday!  
> Good day/night!


	3. An Out of Body Experience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four discovers a new part of his powers and Seven confronts some of her brothers.

Four wasn’t sure how exactly they managed to do it, but at this point he was in too deep and didn’t really care about the when, where and hows. All that mattered to him was that he successfully snuck out of his cupboard of a room each night and was able to sneak past his guardian's office, down the unsettling hallway and into The Ballroom. To The Piano.

Somehow a simple lesson turned into two, then three, then four (hah) and now, months later, he couldn’t imagine never finding this refuge. 

It was very shaky at the beginning, partially because there was no one who could actually show him how to play and the other reason is that he simply didn’t have  _ anything  _ to go by. No sheet music, no theory books, nothing! 

Sometimes he thinks that this little hobby of his is for nothing, that he should just give up, why would it matter? Who would genuinely care? He hasn’t told anyone about it anyway. 

But then he sits in front of the piano and something, some hidden part deep inside of him just  _ knows  _ that this is supposed to happen. That he is supposed to stumble his way across the flea waltz and listen to Gavin (as it turns out Gory Ghost‘s name was) calmly instruct: “No, no. The thumb needs to be one key to the left, now. Yes there exactly!” Gavin was clapping his hands enthusiastically, or at least it looked that way because they, like always, didn’t make a sound. 

“What are they called? These keys?” Four looked down at his fingers with such determination, as if the keys might tell him themselves if he stared hard enough. 

“Your thumb is of a B while your pinky is on an A! Wait no, it’s supposed to be G now! Go one down with your pinky!” 

Four played it again. Correct this time. 

“We really should search for any kind of music theory books in the library. Maybe we could even find some sheet music! I mean you basically live in a castle for all I care. It would be weirder if you didn’t have a shitload of original Rachmaninoff or Chopin just lying around here somewhere,” the ghost man sighed dreamily. 

“Gavy, What does shitload man?” The six and a half(!) year old asked, thoroughly confused at the he heard some of the more outspoken ghosts use but still didn’t know the meaning of.

“Fuck— wait, shit—  _ no! _ ” Gavin heaved out, hands in his hair “you didn’t hear anything, alright?! Nothing! Don’t say shit, bitch, fuck, hell or motherfucker at all! Alright! Those are all  _ very very very  _ bad words!”

“Mother… fucker?”

“ _ No!!!”  _ Gavin looked around The Ballroom with a borderline manic stare and found a seemingly unending mass of spirits–yes, including Geister but those are always glaring, and screaming (they’re a real nuisance)– giving him all kinds of death stares. If he wasn’t as far gone as could go then he’d sure as hell be sent to the grave a second time.

“Come on. Let’s leave for today, you've had enough practice!” if not to give an exhausted (was he though?) child, that sat at the piano for the most part of the last couple of weeks, rest, then to at least to save his ass— butt. To save his butt. 

Four hops merrily from the piano stool and does a poor imitation of a single person promenade in jive style towards his favorite ghost. 

He couldn't seem to move normally in this room, no matter how much he tried and genuinely didn’t know if it’s something to do with the every growing strangeness of it or if it’s just a result of his early developing eccentricity. 

Not that it mattered though, even on the contrary: some ghosts from the ‘rebirth’ era in France really appreciated his efforts– well, they didn’t call it rebirth because they only spoke in french. They called it something along the lines of Renaissance…

Some of the ghosts from that time  _ really, absolutely loved  _ to criticise 

Every 

_ Single _

**_Note_ **

He  _ dared _ to play in their presence.

Four didn’t like those mean ghosts at all, they were sometimes even worse than the Geister. 

He did a few groundsteps, encouraged some willing watchers to dance along and beckoned Gavin to dance alongside him as best as he could – half of the duo being incorporeal and all that. 

“But I don’t want to leave here! It’s always fun!” he almost pouted while repeating a constant right, tap, left, tap, right, close rhythm of the feet in a classic Blues manner and  _ yes,  _ he knew that he was doing the ‘female steps’ but he couldn’t care less. Dancing like that was fun! 

“Alright, alright,” the ghost man conceited with an over-the-top exasperated sigh and a placating hand motion while also complying to the oversimplified dance step rhythm. 

Left, tap, right, tap, left, close. Rinse, repeat. 

After what felt like a few minutes of silent dancing, only occasionally interrupted by the boisterous laughter of the tragically young ghosts and the equally young medium, the ghosts horde seemingly all decided at the same time to just  _ stop _ . 

Not that their precious, honorary, member got the memo. 

No, sometime during the repetitive dancing, the boy had closed his eyes. He just kept on doing the steps and went on, and on, and on, and—

Until he bumped into something. 

No, not something, some _ one _ .

Startled by the sudden and unusual contact, Number Four finally scanned the room and legitimately thought he was going insane. 

Because what he saw, even for a child that grew up with literal ghosts, was incomprehensible.

The spirits were  _ touching _ each other,  _ slapping and pinching  _ one another. Some were doing things that were completely unknown to him at the time and some were simply staring at their open palms with pure  _ astonishment and wonder _ .

Now, as already mentioned, at this point in time, Four grew up with ghosts and emotionally aloof siblings as his only company and none of them liked to talk about mortality and the afterlife (one of those categories had more of a reason to disregard the topic, the other was a big part of the topic itself, you can take a guess at which one’s which) but  _ still _ : one of the few certain rules that applied to the spirits, was that

_ you couldn’t touch them,  _

_ they couldn’t touch you _

and 

_ they couldn’t interact with each other or inanimate objects _ . 

As it turned out those rules (laws? Five would probably call them laws) were easy to break. 

The horde even seemed to get severely louder and not only because of the chaos erupting around him. 

For the first time the sounds were actually physical.

For the first time he actually heard them with his  _ ears _ instead of his  _ mind.  _

And that was the last thing he heard or saw for a while because the world suddenly decided to tilt and go dark. 

* * *

Seven really didn’t know what was going on. One moment she was practicing, and actually doing really good for once, and the next everything just kind of  _ shifted _ . Not physically, no. It just seemed like something was different, like something changed.

Something that shouldn’t have happened. 

It frankly made her especially antsy because she was in between pill dosages and  _ really  _ didn’t like this weird feeling. 

Carefully laying her violin onto her bed she stepped out into the hallway. Maybe to see what the others were doing and maybe to reassure herself that she wasn’t going insane. As much as she liked the calm the pills gave her, she really didn’t want another dosage to keep track of.

Her siblings already didn’t include her in the training, what would they think of her if she turned crazy? 

Seven went directly to Five’s door and already raised her fist to knock at it when she hesitated. 

Would she bother him while reading? Or while calculating and she’d cause him to lose his train of thought and then hate her because it was really important and she would be the reason the really important thing couldn’t be done and then all of her siblings would think  _ and say to her face  _ that she is  _ useless, less than them because she doesn’t have powers and— _

She  _ really  _ wanted a pill. Her hands almost itches for them. 

The girl took a deep breath, held it for a moment and finally knocked. It was a very quiet sound but now that she wasn’t practicing her violin– and did she ever annoy them with it? They always said they liked it but they were probably lying to make her feel better– it was enough to be heard and Five’s door swung open in an almost aggressive way. 

He had an angry, bordering on manic expression on his face that immediately softened when he saw who interrupted him. 

“Hey Seven, what is it?” he said, straight to the point as always.

“Well, do you suddenly feel a bit strange? I mean like _something_ suddenly isn’t right,” she rushed out, not out of fear but out of desperation. 

She really didn’t want to take more pills. 

Five furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head in consideration. 

“A bit, yes. But a lot of strange stuff happens here. What with five super powered children, a humanoid chimpanzee, whatever Sir is and constant disappearances all in the same house? Feeling a bit strange is nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Yeah, ordinary,” she really didn’t like that word, but he had a point, she shouldn’t worry; if Five said everything’s normal then everything was alright. It always was. “Wait, what does hyou-mah-noid mean? Pogo didn’t teach us that word yet...” she asked, not only to change the topic but also because she actually was curious. She liked when Five explained things to her. 

Said boy huffed out a breath but still led her into his room (which just so happened to be much larger than hers or Four’s).

* * *

When Four came to he didn’t know where he was. 

Actually he knew  _ where  _ he was, just not where  _ he  _ was. He  _ was  _ still in The Ballroom, though it seemed much duller than before, as if someone threw a layer of grey over it. He also had a very strange feeling all around, as if he was going to puke but without the sick. 

He didn’t want to puke, he did that once and really didn’t like it at all. 

Maybe that strange feeling was coming from the ghosts? They sometimes did that when he accidentally walked through them. 

But where were the ghosts? It was silent, silent in a way he only knew after the Geister screamed too much. And again, it was weird because those silences were always temporary and he would eventually end up hearing Sir’s lecture about not paying attention, when he couldn’t even hear him in the first place – Four always had to bite his tongue so that he didn’t blurt his powers out. He was hiding them for a reason, even if the exact one was unknown to him. 

When the silence got unnerving and  _ too weird _ he took a look towards the familiar hoard of ghosts and somehow only now noticed that all of them were crouched around a body glowing in shades of red and blue. Gavin taking pulse. Then a relieved smile washing over his (somehow slightly less than before) mangled face.

Four stepped closer to the body

and almost lost consciousness again.

“W-What? I— Gavin! What is going on?” it didn’t make sense. Not at all. This shouldn’t be happening. Was he dead? Was he his own ghost? No that didn’t make sense. Gavin told the others he had a pulse. But he couldn’t if he was dead, right? Five told him that and Five’s never wrong… 

Desperate for answers, the child tried to grip his dead friend's shoulders to shake them.

But  _ his hand  _ fazed  _ through  _ Gavin. Not the other way around.

It was wrong

This shouldn’t happen 

Why was this happening 

Is he finally dead

Does he want to be like the ghosts? 

No he doesn’t.

So why is this happening 

It can’t

“Please”

An unheard cry

“ _ Please, Gavin!” _

_ An unheard scream _

“HELP”, an audible gasp for air. The first thing that he noticed was silence. But not empty silence. Stunned, shocked, relieved and in some cases begrudging silence. The second thing that he noticed was that he was on the floor again and surrounded by bodies, living bodies. The third was that his palms and veins were glowing in an icy-blue color, not a hint of red aside from the bleeding of several ghosts in sight.

Before he could ask though, the glow completely faded and he  _ knew  _ that the bodies around him weren’t ‘real’ anymore, neither was the blood in puddles around him.

But in comparison to their previous behaviour it might as well have been the other way around.

The sudden assault on his ear was bittersweet and familiar. He knew that noise, he could very much handle it. 

What he couldn’t handle was the strange  _ Rush  _ he felt flowing through his veins. Some ghosts talked about a thing called ‘drugs’, was this what it felt like? If yes, then he could definitely understand why they did it until they died. 

Four felt  _ powerful and unstoppable _ . 

Was this how his siblings felt all the time? 

“H-hey little buddy. Are you feeling alright?” Gavin asked tentatively reaching out to Four in trying to comfort him. As expected his hand fazed through the boy's shoulder. As it should be…

Four didn’t want it to be this way though… 

So he would change it. 

He tapped into the flow inside of him. It felt like he was standing in a river, no, a current in the ocean. Then cupped his hands, reached out towards the energy and 

didn’t get any of it. 

_ “Do it again, come on, just do it for us we’ll be  _ **_so grateful_ ** _ ”  _ came a strangling whisper from right behind him and without even looking, he knew that the Geister were starting to catch on to his ability(?).

_ And they weren’t happy to be spirits again… _

* * *

“Hey Five, is the feeling gone for you too?” Seven asked, barely lifting her gaze from the book on the history of impressionism composers to glance at her closest brother. 

Said brother raised an eyebrow in consideration and was completely silent for a couple of seconds, as if he was listening for something. 

“Seems like it”, he eventually responded. 

Then Five put down the book on some kind of specific field of physics, that Seven (and the rest of her siblings for that matter) could never even hope to understand, he was reading and disappeared with a blue light and a loud  _ thwoop _ .

Seven sighed, already having grown used to this over the past one –maybe one and a half– year(s?) and simply left the room to return to her practice. Father would probably be really angry with her for the long pause so she should head back as soon as possible. He barely even gave her the violin, she should be more grateful that he even allowed her to do  _ something _ . 

At least she was better off than Four. 

But, where was said boy? It felt like she almost never saw him anymore aside from meal time. 

He never watched their siblings train –which she couldn’t understand at all, their siblings always looked so incredible! 

He wasn’t in his room, as far as she knew and he couldn’t really hide in it, it somehow was even smaller than hers.

She sometimes even looked in the library when she got too curious but he wasn’t there either. 

But he couldn’t have possibly left the Academy, could he? 

No, no no no. He couldn’t have, or father would have already caught him and made  _ an example  _ out of the situation. 

She really didn’t like it when da— father did that, it felt  _ wrong  _ even more so than the strange feeling she felt just a couple of minutes earlier. 

She continued her practice but soon found that the piece she was currently occupied with did the impossible and managed to bore her. Her level of playing being far more advanced than her father knew of. Well, he  _ would’ve been  _ aware of her skill if it weren’t for her always clamping up and panicking every time he demanded ( cross out) requested she play something for him. 

It was humiliating. She hated it. 

Sighing, she carefully put down her violin and bow then went to re-wax it, just in case, when she heard footsteps going down the hallway. 

Training time just ended (it was more of individual training instead of the competitive kind today so she wasn’t allowed to watch, as it would ‘waste her and everyone else’s time’) so it would most likely be from her siblings (excluding Four) returning to their room.

But it was a singular set of steps and they didn’t have the no-nonsense aura One was usually walking around with after beating the others in training, nor the angry temper of Two after said beating. Not the above-it-all attitude Three wore day in and out or the shyness of not wanting to interact with anyone else that Six radiated. 

Five just didn’t walk anywhere if he didn’t have to. 

So it had to be—

Seven put the wax away, gripped her own hands, took a deep breath and tried to gather up enough courage to face her runaway brother. She tried out a small smile but it didn’t feel right so she just went for it with an impassive expression. 

Confidently she burst out of her room, only to imidiatly lose all of the rare attitude and bravado she played up. 

Number Four, there was no better way to describe it, looked like a corpse, or at least close to being one. At first glance he was just a bit disheveled, his hair a mess and his uniform rumpled. But if one would look beyond that–and Seven certainly did– they would find that his skin was almost translucently pale, his figure seeming even skinnier and bonier than usual. His lips were tinted blue, his nose was flared and his eyes were sunken and dull. And they were staring over her shoulder in, what looked to be, morbid fascination . 

Noticing that she noticed him, Four quickly covered up. He put on that familiar, mischievous smile that either meant that he was planning a prank or sharing too many details of the death of a ‘celebrity’ that they didn’t even know of and Four couldn’t have possibly known about. But he’s Four, that’s just how he was so they usually just brushed him off. 

Not now though. Seeing that smile that she’s so used to directly after him looking worse than the corpses in their forensics classes really concerned her. 

Before she could speak and try to make a comment about  _ what just happened??? _ , he interrupted her, how rude… not that she would call him out on that though.

“Wanna go to the library? I just heard you play, you need some complexer sheet music.” he suggested with the confidence (was it really that?) of someone who knew that they had you hooked. 

Seven didn’t know how  _ he  _ could recognise her skill level well enough to know that she was under-challenged, but she wasn’t going to miss out on spending some time with the brother she probably should’ve been closest to. 

Not waiting for an answer, Four already went towards the direction of the library,  _ wait no he wasn’t…  _

“Uhm, Four? The library’s in the other direction…” Seven blurted out, barely loud enough for said brother to hear her. 

Still she followed him. 

Four turned around so suddenly that she almost bumped directly into him and regarded her with a smile that was different from everything she has ever seen on his face. 

_ It was genuine _ , her mind supplied. But it couldn’t be that, right? That would mean that most of the time he was just pretending. It sounded impossible: Their happy-go-lucky brother,  _ not being genuine?  _ It just didn’t fit his character,  _ did it?  _

“Well,” he brought her out of her thoughts “we’re not going to that  _ gigantic, boring and ancient _ library! I don’t want to get asthma from all the dust there! No,  _ we’re _ , ma chérie sœur, are going somewhere  _ way better _ ” he said while taking her hand and leading her…  _ somewhere _ .

Where they were going? She didn’t have the slightest idea. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! Next chapter will probably be out by Tuesday.  
> Good day/night :)


	4. Endless Hallways and Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of inner monologuing and more of Vanya's perspective!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically just filler, but not in the transition kind of way. You’ll see what I mean in the next chapter (if you decide to read it and all that)

Seven didn’t know what exactly she expected from Fours supposedly ‘superior’ library. But this wasn’t it. 

She reached the peak of her confusion a couple of hallways ago when they turned  _ another  _ corner, into  _ another  _ unfamiliar hallway. At this point it felt like they were in a maze instead of their home— house. 

It was getting progressively harder to tell if the atmosphere was turning oppressive or if it was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders,  _ super disorienting _ . 

But that wasn’t her main concern or cause of her confusion, for that matter. 

No, what  _ really  _ confused her was her fellow powerless brother, whose hand was still gripping hers and who made a habit out of stopping every couple of hallways, looking above him at something in the air, nodding, and then continuing with an air of nonchalance. He did all of that in complete silence. 

It was extremely unnerving. More so than when Five had tried to explain an equation filled to the brim with variables, to the point where it took up several pages in his notebook, rushed out a lacklustre summary of years of professional physics education (she had no idea how he had learned all of that by himself) and expected her to help him solve it. ‘They’ eventually did so and that made Five’s jumps more ‘energy conservative’ and _no_ , she wasn’t jealous when he started _jumping_ everywhere and da— _father_ started to pay _even more_ attention to him, instead of giving _any at all_ to her. But that’s not the point.

Seven really didn’t want to break the silence that was only interrupted by Fours humming from time to time. The tune seemed familiar, somehow; but she couldn’t for the life of her place it.  _ Did he always do that? Why had nobody noticed? It would drive Two insane!  _

On the other hand she  _ really was curious. _

She really wanted to know where they were headed, how he discovered these parts of the mansion, where they would be getting the sheet music from, how he even knew where to find something so specific, and thousands of other things.

At some point, after he stopped, nodded and turned a corner  _ again,  _ Seven tried to gather up her courage from before and… interrogate him? At least that’s what Two always talked about ‘after we are finally allowed to beat up the bad guys’ and, well, she wasn’t about to beat up Four, she wasn’t even sure if she  _ could _ and he  _ hopefully  _ wasn’t a ‘bad guy’ _ ,  _ but she wanted answers,  _ now _ .

“Hey, Four. W—“ but before she even could get the words past her lips, he stopped completely. This time in front of a single, tiny and seemingly hidden door. 

Seven noted that the hallway seemed to be flooded with daylight, even though there weren’t any windows. 

But other than the previous, for the lack of better word,  _ journey _ it wasn’t unnerving, it was the opposite. She never felt more welcome in her ho— house, in this house that they happened to live in… 

Seven gazed around her surroundings and tried to pick up every little detail from under her bangs. 

_ Was this chaise longe there before? What was up with the paintings? They shouldn’t shift! Is that a… bookcase? Directly outside a ‘library’? Wait, where did it go?  _

But before she could get lost in the strange beauty of it all, she turned back towards her brother, who was still turned towards the door, with his back towards her. At least he let go of her hand.

“What is this?” Seven finally asked in a reluctant manner. 

“This,” he responded with an air of drama but also a hint of foresight –maybe that was his pow—  _ stop _ – while turning to face her “will be the place of your dreams.” 

With that he kicked one of his heels backwards, towards the door and it opened just barely, leaving the door not ajar, as one would’ve expected, but with an  _ infinitesimal  _ (Five taught her that word recently) gap between door and frame.

Four let out a huff of amusement and mumbled something about ‘flair’ and ‘bad first impressions’ under his breath. And with that, Seven felt out of her depth.  _ Again. _

Out of desperation to do  _ something _ she cleared her throat.

It worked. 

His head snapped back up to her face and he regained a, well… sparkle(?) in his eyes as he nodded his head towards the unseeming door that apparently led to ‘the place of her dreams’ and another  _ genuine  _ smile stretched across his face. 

“Ladies first”, he almost chuckled out.

* * *

To say that Four was on an emotional rollercoaster today would be the understatement of the century and he had time witnesses to prove him right. 

Said time witnesses were also really quiet after… after  _ that _ ; barely any deafening screaming from Geister and maybe a comment here and there, but other than that? Complete silence and  _ respect for his poor, damaged baby ears _ . 

He’d preen in it, if it weren’t for the countless questions floating around his mind. He still didn’t have an answer as to  _ what the (sorry Grace and Nanny Ghosts) hell happened in The Ballroom _ . All he knew was that suddenly the spirits were  _ real  _ and then  _ he wasn’t _ . On top of that, some of the Geister finally decided to talk, y’know, like  _ every other spirit _ and he really wished that they didn’t. 

He wasn’t easily scared –just  _ look _ at his siblings– but at that moment he was close to tears. 

Thankfully he was able to run away without them following, he didn’t know if Gavin had anything to do with that, either way, he was grateful. 

Still, Four felt like (sorry again) shit. 

So, when he heard his Lieblings Schwester play what was easily an entry level piece, even though he could  _ tell _ by just  _ listening  _ (and maybe with Richards help but who cares) that she was severely under challenged, he stopped in the middle of his run (more like desperate sprint) and just  _ thought  _ about it. 

Why would she stew around this level when she clearly had a lot of talent?  _ Sure _ , the expression in her playing was a bit lacklustre and she  _ did  _ make a few technical mistakes here and there, but that didn’t matter because it was probably boring her to  _ death  _ and he sure as (at this point it was really unnecessary to apologise  _ every time  _ he used a bad word that Gavin accidentally ‘taught’ him –he already heard all of them before from other ghosts and especially Geister) hell didn’t want one of his siblings to follow him around so soon, if at all. 

“Hey kiddo, the girly with the bangs is starin at ya…” said a ghost that he didn’t properly know yet, she just appeared this morning.

Four didn’t have a clue how she was able to talk so clearly with not only her jaw missing but also having a mangled tongue that just… rested against her open throat. He also didn’t have a clue how the ghost could’ve spotted Seven, considering that both of her eyes –just like her nose– were missing. Creating small, negative spaces in her face that, just as most new ghosts –there are  _ always new ghosts _ – were drip, drip, dripping not-really-there blood all across the marble, wooden or linoleum floor.

After processing what exactly New-Gore-y-Ghost had just said, he tried to cover up his probably shitfuck ( _ listen _ , he just got ‘taught’ swear words, that he was  _ specifically told not to use _ , of course he was going to do so anyway) looking appearance with a smile that usually got the job done.

Seven didn’t look convinced in the slightest though and he knew that he had to take action before she started asking questions that he  _ absolutely did  _ **_not_ ** want to answer. 

“Take her to the library, she  _ desperately  _ needs more difficult and complex sheet music. And I don’t mean the ‘normal’ library, Four-o.”

With this new plan of his (actually Gavins, but again, who cares about the fine details) he knew what he had to do to distract his sister. 

In a matter of less than three minutes, if that one Geist that was  _ constantly _ counting  _ every, single, second  _ in German was still correct, he had convinced her to accompany him to  _ The _ library, not the  _ Library _ –there was a difference– and they were on their way.

The only problem was, that he himself had only been there  _ once  _ and he didn’t exactly remember getting there. What, with the especially brutally murdered and decaying Geister deciding that they hadn’t had enough  _ ‘playtime’  _ on that day and him desperately trying to avoid looking at them because they made him want to vomit? How could he  _ not  _ have committed the path to memory? 

A war crime, he has to admit! 

So he took her hand and just went for it, hoping against all odds that at least the ghosts remembered where this one  _ specific  _ room was in this impossible building. But he knew deep down in his bones, like some of the ghosts that claimed they were ‘psychic’ in their life described having a ‘vision’, that it won’t just be a random room to them,  _ no, this will be very important _ . 

He roughly knew where he was headed but occasionally he had to stop and wait for one of the ghosts to give him the right direction. Sometimes they argued though and so the siblings stood on a dark corner, somewhere deep and unfamiliar in a dark and unaccepting mansion they called ‘home’ and waited, their hands still tightly clasped and one of them probably really confused. 

Four also knew that Seven was probably really unnerved and uncomfortable, but that just wouldn’t do. So, he decided to break the rare silence, after “...zweiundzwanzig, dreiundzwanzig, vierundzwanzig…”

about thirty three minutes and twenty four seconds. 

He started to hum a familiar french tune, one of the ghost nannies always used to calm him down with after the Geister were getting to him. For some reason he felt Seven tense behind him at that so after “fünfundvierzig, sechsundvierzig, siebenundvierzig, anchtundvierzig…” a couple of minutes(?) –he wasn’t really sure, even with what’s basically a (un-)living clock following his every step– he stopped again, having felt sorry to be the cause of his sisters further discomfort. 

He had to stop at  _ another  _ crossroad (crosshallway?) and Four was seriously starting to question his own sanity and the actual existence of  _ The _ library. Maybe it was just a back-entrance to the normal library and he just ended up in a part that wasn’t usually visible but,  _ no, that can’t be it! I saw it, and if I saw it and felt it and experienced it, it has to be real!  _

The young medium started to hum again, because otherwise he’d  _ guarantee  _ that he’d legitimately go insane. Avoiding that, was very high on his list of things not to do in life, right under wearing layers of different shades of orange at the same time. 

“Aight, now one last time to the right and then you’ll be there!”, new ghost said with way too much enthusiasm for her sorry state that hasn’t bettered in the slightest over the course of the last hour and a half. Not that he expected her to, but it would have been nice for everyone present, including Seven, even if she couldn’t see Gory McGee. It couldn’t have been pleasant to step into puddles of ghost mucus, blood and other liquids(?) without even knowing they existed.

He felt Seven tense again behind him but he could already tell that this wasn’t out of confusion. Maybe it was annoyance at the lack of, well,  _ anything at all happening _ . 

They’re on the same boat on that one, really. 

Feeling that they had waited enough, he set forth once again, on their oh so glorious and eventful journey! 

And then there was a sudden lightness in his chest, as if everything that happened that day suddenly didn’t matter at all. He knew that lightness and he also knew that they had finally arrived at their long awaited destination.  _ The  _ library. 

Four heard Seven lightly shuffle around behind him and knew that she was, maybe for the first time, taking in their surroundings. He knew she saw something that could hardly be described. It was as if everything and nothing was in this hallway, as if it was flooded with daylight, (just like The Ballroom, but he could only think of one thing at a time) even if there were no windows, 

or were there? 

But that didn’t matter right now because she finally,  _ finally _ asked him this so badly awaited question (even though she seemed to force it out and completely lost any kind of confidence she had possessed before): 

“What is this?” 

_ God,  _ it sounded as if she wanted the ground to swallow her whole (which was, according to victims of quick sand not at all a desirable thing, they really liked that none of the Hargreeves children were allowed  _ near  _ any kind of beach, much less a dessert). 

In the end, it didn’t matter  _ how  _ she said the line, as long as she did so. 

Now it was time for the performance to start! 

“This”, he started in the best dramatic voice he could manage, that meant it was  _ very dramatic _ (which was just the best kind of dram), while ever so slowly turning around to face his taller companion “will be the place of your dreams.”

_ Now for the final touch.  _

He kicked his heel behind himself and aimed at what was hopefully the door. 

_ Thwack _

The hit landed perfectly, but being a six (and a half!) year old, no matter how atypical the behaviour, had its shortcomings, like having a six year old body. One without any proper body strength whatsoever (except if you’re called One).

The perfect example of that presented itself in this door because instead of swinging open like it  _ should  _ have, it just… budged(?) a little bit. 

“Way to ruin the flair of it all. Is it even possible for a  _ door  _ to be responsible for a bad first impression?” Four mumbled under his breath. He really should’ve practiced it at some point, but oh well, too late for that now! 

The boy opened the entrance behind him and invited his sister into the  _ probably _ most magical place they’ll ever see and experience. 

_ This was going to be good.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I’m not really happy with how this turned out but oh well... 
> 
> Anyway, you know the process by now: Thank you do much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and have a good day/night :)
> 
> (Btw WE PASSED 100 KUDOS! HOLY SHIT I DON’T HAVE THE WORDS TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE (and isn’t that ironic))


	5. Lying to the Clueless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four discovers another part of his powers and Two exists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This chapter is completely unbeta’d please don’t judge me too hard)

“And? How was it?” Four asked in anticipation, eagerness radiating off him in waves that even the densest person could pick up on.

It was that eagerness that made Gavin’s heart ache when he told the boy: ”Well, don’t take this the wrong way! You’re awesome, but you really need to work on your dynamics… but otherwise you’re basically a genius!” 

Another thing that even this specific densest person to ever exist would be able to pick up on was that Gavin probably used to be an only child and didn’t know how to handle anything that could be described as something akin to ‘adorable’ or ‘tooth rotting cuteness’ from someone he has been feeling very protective of.

Still, was the ghost going to brush all criticisms aside? Hell no. Four wanted someone to teach him, he was going to have someone teach him, even if it kills him ( _ again).  _

“Dynamics? What does that even mean? I know a lot of super big and complicated words like elucidate and scintillating! Even Five doesn’t know some of these words,  _ Five!  _ … Wait, does that make me the smart one in the family? I don’t want to be the smart one! I’m already the—“ before Four had the chance to continue with his ramblings and maybe say something he ‘didn't mean to’ (even if no one, aside from a fully packed ghost entourage, would've been able to hear him) Gavin covered the boy's mouth with his right hand.

It worked, not because the hand physically covered his mouth but because he couldn’t believe the  _ audacity, the absolute gal  _ to interrupt him while he was just about to ramble about all the things he wanted to.

After a few moments of looking cross eyed to where Gavin’s hand was still maybe a fourth of an inch away from his face and feeling that weird cold the dead brought with them spread across his face, he surrendered and lifted his hands in mock ‘ _ defeat’,  _ but you could tell that it wasn’t serious at all _ ,  _ as if he’d ever lose to Gavin! 

“Well, c’mon! You went through the whole process of finding the library and the books,  _ somehow  _ hiding them in your ‘room’ and even avoided Reggie-fuck and his weird questions!” The Ghost excitedly blurted out, temporarily forgetting about his ‘no bad words around the baby’ rule. Though the Entourage decidedly cared less about any of it, as long as Four didn’t use any of the ‘bad’ words around anyone else. So, not wanting Gavin to basically break down like the Geister again, he decided to play along and not outright say that Gavin broke the rule he made himself… for now. 

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t tease Gavin about it, if Two and Six were allowed to tease him, he could tease Gavin all he wanted! 

“Yeah, you’re right. Reggie-fuck is a real pain in the ass! What a motherfucker!” Now he just had to wait for a reaction.

“ _ Four, I swear to everything nice and holy…” _ and there it was, accompanied by a sigh that could even rival Pogos when no one knew the answer to a question (that only happened on days when Five was out sick –a very rare occurrence, considering he usually toughed it out– and Four wasn’t going to say anything because “you're not supposed to know that yet, Four! They learned that in training”). Then, when the sigh so drawn out, that only someone without the need to breathe could do it, ended, he went on to continue in a carefully ‘threatening’ tone: “just go and get the books Four.” 

He did enough teasing for today, he decided, so he co-operated without much of a fuss and slid down the piano stool. 

As soon as his bare feet made complete contact with the floor again, the ghosts and Geister took it upon themselves to try and get his attention just for themselves again. All at the same time.  _ Again _ . 

If any not-dead/ non-medium person had been watching, they’d never see the difference though. Four was already way too used to the sudden changes in volume. That still didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying. 

He just wanted a normal piano lesson in peace without being bothered! Was that too much to ask? 

Four seriously had

“ **_ENOUGH!_ ** ” 

And apparently it wasn’t too much to ask, because there it was again, the feeling he had felt a couple of weeks ago, the day Seven and him went to the library for the first time. The day the spirits were quiet. The day he made them  _ real _ . 

Real… wait! 

Four took a frantic and borderline fearful look around the room. As much as he likes some of the ghosts, he’d probably never handle them being real, especially the extremely bloody and mangled ones, because the blood they’d be drip, drip,  _ dripping  _ on the floor would actually  _ be there  _ and they would be real but  _ still dead  _ and so,  _ so badly injured. _

But as he looked properly he didn’t see stunned ghosts slapping one another to feel pain, or  _ anything really _ . He didn’t see any awed expressions or manically delighted faces. 

He experienced something he never knew could be possible. 

Instead of the spirits who usually liked to haunt him, 

he 

_ saw _

**_No one._ **

Four slowly backed up towards a wall and observed The Ballroom in its entirety. 

It  _ did  _ seem a bit scary, or at least had an eerie atmosphere when it was completely empty and oh so silent… 

It was too quiet, so absolutely.

Why was there no sound? 

Who was doing this?

Did all of them just decide to leave him?

Wasn’t he good enough?

Were they even real in the first place?

Did he spend all his time worrying about them becoming  _ real  _ that he never even considered the possibility of them  _ never even being there in the first place?  _

Why is it so  _ cold? _

Oh. 

His veins were glowing again. Lavender this time. Was he doing this? 

Oh god, he is actively shutting his only real friends out. They’re going to hate him. They will finally see all the annoying things he does. They will absolutely despise him… what if they don’t come back? He can’t live in this… this emptiness! 

At some point, Number Four screwed his eyes shut and sat down on the ice cold marble floor, his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees, which were pressed against his chest. 

He couldn’t see anything, but in this newfound silence he found, he could hear everything. 

From the ringing in his ears to the rapid heartbeat in his chest, it was all there. 

Including the drip, drip,  _ drip  _ of something. 

_ Please, let it be them!  _

Looking up in desperation, he saw nothing. 

Still an empty room.

He started to hate the sight.

It were tears from his eyes dripping on the floor. 

Not knowing what to do, he wiped his eyes and walked back towards the piano, which did at least a bit to help calm him down. He sat down on the stool again, poised his hands in proper posture and went for it. He played all the things he was taught in the last couple of weeks, as silly and amateurish as it may have sounded, it helped him.

After a while it felt as if he relaxed a muscle that wasn’t actually there and the cold started to seep away. 

Four barely noticed it though, as he kept on playing his little heart out without even thinking about ever stopping. 

But he eventually came to the end of his repertoire and almost went on to repeat everything he still knew by heart, maybe even throw in some Chopin finger exercises. 

So he positioned his hands again, played the first few notes of Ode to Joy and was  _ rudely  _ interrupted. 

“Hey there Little one. I really think you should take a break. I’m pretty sure it’s lunchtime already.”, came a smug voice to his left. 

Four really didn’t care about Gavins self satisfied tone as he jumped off the stool. 

All that mattered was that he was actually  _ there _ . 

He also didn’t care about the risks of charging at the almost alive looking ghost. 

If Reggie ever saw him like this, he would have probably scolded and cuffed around the head so many times, it would actually leave lasting damage, physical and mental. 

But as previously stated: Reginald wasn’t here and he’d  _ never be _ and even if that somehow happened, Four simply couldn’t care less. 

He charged and geared up for a jump. And did so. 

But of course he fell right through Gavin, even though said ghost lifted his arms to catch him, maybe out of reflex, maybe out of hope. Four had no idea. 

The impact on his shoulder wasn’t as bad as it could have been. He’d expect it to leave a bit of bruising, but compared to the injuries his siblings (well most of them anyway) returned from training with, this was nothing, so he shot up again with the help of his arms already conveniently positioned on the floor. 

“Woah there buckaroo! What’s all this about?”

“Gavin! Where were you?” He cried out in a pleading tone. 

Gavin seemed to be confused by that statement, as he cocked his head to the side like a dog that didn’t quite understand something. “Did I go somewhere?” 

Now it was Fours turn to be confused.

“You were just suddenly gone! I had no idea where you were or if you could return at all!” 

One could tell just by looking at the ghost that he had no idea what was going on. “I was gone?”.

He turned towards the entourage. “Did you guys feel anything weird or notice something?” 

The ghosts— or at least those who were aware enough of their surroundings to do so— shook their heads, equally put out. 

“No!” Four was starting to become desperate, to make them  _ understand _ , “every single one of you was gone! I was completely alone!”. He was at the verge of tears again. What had happened to him? 

Gavin finally grasped the toll this whole situation has taken on the boy and something protective flared up inside his soul. “Alright”, he gritted out with a tense expression. “Alright”, he repeated himself, softer this time. 

“Come on little buddy. We should get out of here for a bit. I bet you’re hungry after… whatever this was.”

Four nodded meekly, which was unusual enough for him that Gavin knew leaving all this behind for the time being was the best option. 

All of them left the Ballroom in silence, except for the Geister, who belatedly seemed to realise what had actually happened. Needless to say they weren’t happy about it. 

If fact, they were so loud, that when Two tried to talk to Four, the latter couldn’t even hear him for the first few attempts, at least until one of the kinder ghosts managed to quiet them down. 

“— is going on with you?” 

“Sorry, what?” 

Two‘s face lit up, “So h-he c-can hear!” 

Four unconsciously imitated Gavins gesture from before and cocked his head slightly to the side in confusion. “What do you mean, Two?” 

His brother rolled his eyes, a gesture that would’ve immediately been punished by Good Ol’ Reggie if he saw it. 

“D-dude, f-first you lo-look like d-death and then y-you don’t even h-hear me f-for like three m-minutes!” he said in a joking manner. Then his expression darkened and he took a deep breath. “Seriously, is everything alright? I have barely seen you these past few weeks…” Two said deliberately slowly and carefully, not wanting to stumble his way across the words. 

Now, Four didn’t like lying. He just didn’t see the point. But especially didn’t like lying to his siblings, it simply felt bad, he felt like shit every time he did it.

And technically he hadn’t lied about his powers. He never said that he didn’t have any, they just assumed so because he never told them about it and never corrected them.

He was happy about that situation in moments like these. Four could barely handle the pity and sympathy of the ghosts, he sure as hell couldn’t handle it coming from his siblings, whose situation was arguably way worse than his. 

_ They didn’t need to worry about him on top of themselves. _

So Four resisted the shiver as one of the meaner ghosts —one that didn’t quite reach Geist territory yet— purposefully phased through him and gave Two his most dashing smile. 

“Oh, you know me, Two!” He slung an Arm around his brother’s shoulder and set off towards the kitchen “Just a boy, living his beste Leben! But seriously, I’m  _ famished!  _ We need to go down to go have lunch right now or my stomach  _ will  _ devour itself!” 

Two tsked at the last comment in annoyance but still went along without any form of protest.

“W-we need t-to go down there a-anyway. I-it’s lunchtime.” 

“Yep, just boring old lunchtime where nothing happens!” 

Four loved that thought. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slight delay on this chapter, I suffered from a small case of good ol’ writers block.  
> And in other news: This somehow surpassed 1k hits and I’m a bit overwhelmed by it. Thank all of you so much! I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it! :)  
> (and on an entirely unrelated note: I highly recommend Black Friday by StarKid Productions. How tf do they manage to make every single song an absolute bop packed in a humorous but also super emotional story???)


	6. L & L

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief look into the educational life of the Hargreeves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit I’m actually the worst.  
> Hi, I’m not dead btw, just had the biggest writers block, specifically for this fic (idk how either). I hope this doesn’t happen again, but at least there is a new chapter? Yay?

Four reveled in the unusual silence lunch and dinner usually brought with them. Not even the most vocal spirits dared to make a sound, only the most unhinged and lost of the Geister kept on pleading, screaming and groaning, but that was just background noise by now. The weird thing about it was, that even that wasn’t as loud as usual. It was as if the spirits were afraid of Reginald.

“I wan’ ta choke that bastard”

Or they just really disliked that bitch. Very understandable in Fours opinion.

He had to hold back a giggle at the out of left field comment of the ghost that convinced him to go to the library with Seven and had a missing jaw, Ashley, made. Normally he would retaliate that that seemed a bit tame compared to other stuff he heard on a daily basis, but as he was surrounded by his siblings, all of them on their way to a health/medical emergencies class taught by Grace, he bit the retort back.

Two already knew that something fishy was going on, he didn’t want the others to start asking questions too. 

As they entered the room and settled down into their pre-assigned seats and pulled out their books from under the tables, Ashley just kept going on and on. 

“I mean, I seriously wanna choke him. I’d do it if I could. Just ta see that stupid stern visage of his turn blue an’ it would make his eyes pop outta his face! Can ya imagine? Man, I wish I could still touch things!” she exclaimed in mock frustration that was laced with something  _ very  _ genuine beneath it. 

Again, Four had to suppress a shudder mixed with laughter at that, he was trying to move out of the little spotlight he had built for himself. Though just like hiding his powers to the point where Reggie claimed he didn’t have any in the first place, this was somehow manageable, especially considering his siblings already easily dismissed him as  _ just the ridiculous, powerless Four trying to stand out.  _

Before he could lose himself in his thoughts again — he started to do that a lot recently — he perked up a bit as he heard the faint  _ tap, tap, tap  _ of Graces’ heels that grew louder with each second.

This shouldn’t be as strange as it was, but if one kept in mind that Grace should’ve been here for over some time already, checking that everything with the projector was alright so it wouldn’t mess up his siblings’ strict schedules,it turned out to be really jarring. 

It had always been that way, what was so different about today?

And apparently he wasn’t the only one asking himself that, because as soon as Grace entered the room One spoke up in an uncharacteristically curious tone: “Is something wrong, Grace?” 

The robot just leaned her head to the side a bit in a disarming manner and told him to not worry about it. Then, as if she hadn’t just said one of the most ominous things they (excluding Four) had ever heard in their lives, she started the lesson. 

“Today, we’re going to study simple wounds and how to fix them very quickly. You’ll need to do so if any of you is ever injured in battle and there isn’t anyone of help nearby”, she recited like she was reading out of a textbook on battle strategy, which to be completely honest she probably was. 

Someone next to him cleared their throat and raised their hand. Out of curiosity Four turned his head to the side just to see Five sit there with his purposefully slouched posture and a determined expression on his face. That was weird. Five usually just said everything out loud without even thinking about raising his hand and yes, it may have been their first lesson about stuff they’ll later use in combat, but what was so different about this in comparison to the other, ‘normal’ lessons? 

“Yes, Five?” Grace called on him. 

“Why are Seven and Four here? They don’t need to know this stuff.” It probably wasn’t supposed to come off as mean but it definitely did.

Four could see Seven, who sat at the most secluded corner of the room, cower into herself at these words. They were usually close, why did Five say something so mean to her (and him, but that didn’t matter)? Though he had to admit that his brother as usual had a point,  _ why were we here? It’s not like we’d ever have to use the knowledge… _

Apparently good ol’ Reggie-fuck had other ideas because Grace replied with a very surreal tone: “It is always good in case of emergencies to know at least general first aid and how to treat minor injuries, Five. There is no way to know the future without experiencing it first hand, there is no way to calculate what it might bring and all of you need to be prepared.” she finished with an equally surreal smile, not that Five would’ve seen it though, because as soon as Grace mentioned how the future was incalculable he was gone. Mentally, not physically that is. Five did that a lot too, but probably in a very different way. He’d probably tattoo equations or something on the back of his eyelids if he could, Five would most likely grow up to be the mad scientist of the family. 

Four had to suppress a small smile at the thought of a future outside of this house, completely separated from Reggie-gags influence. What would the others be doing with their futures? Would all of them still be in contact or avoid each other like the plague? 

He looked over to Three, who sat directly next to him; he could tell that she didn’t like sharing a desk with him just by how much space she was taking up. What would she do with her future? Would she be fighting crime? Probably not, she always complained about training when One wasn’t in earshot and she still had enough voice to do so. 

Seven always left the room when Three talked about how hard it was even though she saw it on pretty much a daily basis with her own eyes. Three was probably going to do something dramatic, the only reason why she even gave a damn about training was because she wanted to impress the outside world when they eventually went public. Good for her. 

He couldn’t really imagine what the others would do outside of the academy.

Maybe, just maybe Six would do something with books. He’d turn out either the normal one of the family or do a complete 180 and dominate the world or something. Four couldn’t really read Six as well as the others, the two of them never having real contact. Their personalities were just too different. Maybe Four should give him a chance, who knows what might happen to them in the future? 

And what about to Two—

A gasp from beside him startled him out of his thoughts, again. He  _ really  _ needed to get that in check. Seven already was more confused than comfortable around him.  _ They weren’t allowed to find out. _

He threw a confused look in the general direction of Three, the gaspee, but also caught the expressions of his other siblings out of the corners of his eyes.  _ What had he missed?  _

He was just about to ask Grace what was going on and if suddenly  _ he  _ was the sane one, when he noticed that the projector was already turned on and what seemed to be a couple of slides in. 

There was a lot of blood. And flesh. And the lifeless face of a corpse. 

He could definitely understand his siblings’ reactions now, though it didn’t affect him all that much, keeping in mind that he had experience with all things surrounding death and 50 more ways to die, his siblings didn’t. But he also couldn’t relate to their reactions in the slightest. Blood and flesh,  _ big deal _ . 

This would be the perfect opportunity for an ‘ill-mannered and insolent’– as Reggdoll liked to put it – joke and this time a little snicker escaped him. He couldn’t help it, sue him! 

His siblings would probably do that at some point if they could and honestly, Four couldn’t blame them, but jokes on them, they didn’t have several lawyer ghosts complaining about all the weird things going on around here blabbering their ear of day and night! If they were to sue him they’d have a big storm coming!

Now, one may ask why they’d want to do so and the answer is incredibly easy: 

For once they heard him, especially the super inappropriate sickening and probably thought he was a psychopath. With how they were staring at him, all slack jawed and bulge eyed, one would think he just dismembered Grace in front of them and then shot Pogo. 

“Four, is something the matter?” speaking of Grace, even she, a robot, seemed a bit concerned about his mental stability. 

“Oh no, just a bit of a cough from the oatmeal.” The oatmeal that he probably had completely digested by now, but who cares about semantics? 

Apparently Five did because his scienciest brother seemed only more suspicious than before and squinted at him while the rest of his siblings simply went on listening to Grace teach them about flesh wounds and in which cases they are lethal (probably, he didn’t really listen to her). He threw his brother a smile that should’ve been disarming and dashingly charming but most likely came across as manic. 

Five rolled his eyes at that and tuned back into the mostly over lesson. 

Four really missed all of it, didn’t he? 

Well, it’s not like it matters much, ‘without any powers’ he wouldn’t be allowed out in the public to fight crime, there’d be too much backlash and Reggie-retch was ashamed of him as it was. 

He and Seven would never fight crime with the rest of the Academy. 

Wait. 

_ Seven _

Was she even aware that she’ll never really be part of the team if Reggie-bitchie was still in charge? Or was she just holding onto hope the whole time? Was that why she was always watching the others train and not just because the mono brow required it? He was able to sneak away like it was nothing and didn’t get punished for it…

Oh god, now he felt bad. He probably should’ve included her more instead of just taking her to the secret library  _ once  _ and then going about his day…

Alright, new plan! 

* * *

After the lesson they usually had an hour of free time to ‘digest the information they were given’ and to ‘expand their knowledge’. Not that most of them did any of that and if they did, it was surely for the wrong reasons. Number One, as always, wanted to impress Mister Permanent Scowl, Number Two wanted to beat him at that and Number Three just hung around in the background because she didn’t know what to do.

Number Five usually grabbed the books he wanted and jumped out of the library to study in peace and Number Six just didn’t read anything outside of fiction. 

Today was going to be the exact same, Four could already tell, even though they were just stepping out of the classroom. 

He threw a subtle look across the hallway and noted that the gang's all here! And surprising calm at that. 

Gavin was talking to Ashley – he didn’t know they could do that – and the rest of the entourage seemed to be content with the way things were currently playing out (well, aside from the Geister of course, there is no pleasing  _ them _ ). 

Four took that as a good sign for his makeshift plan, as he hung back while his siblings, as expected, went in the direction of the library. 

All but one (no, not  _ Number  _ One). 

There she was, slowly peeking out of the classroom and flinching when she finally spotted Four. 

Admittedly, he wasn’t ready to face her yet, maybe later, but if he wanted to spend some quality sibling time with his little sister (it didn’t matter that they were the exact same age), he needed to appease some of the needier (read: whinier) ghosts. 

So he did what he had to do and scurried away to the (normal, unfortunately) library before she actually had the chance to intercept him.

* * *

Seven had to admit that she didn’t pay much attention in class after Five’s question. 

She really didn’t like what he said, why was he being mean? It made no sense, yesterday they were hanging out after his training. Did she say something wrong there? Maybe he just didn’t like her anymore… 

She was slightly ashamed to say that even the thought of that – it wasn’t exactly an unusual one – made her want to break out in tears. 

They were friends right? All of them were, but it wouldn’t surprise her, if that wouldn’t be the case anymore in a few weeks. 

It seemed as if her siblings‘ training regiment had grown to be even stricter and showed no signs of stopping. Was this some kind of punishment from Sir? Had she done something wrong  _ again? _

That would at least explain why her siblings increasingly trained alone, so that she couldn‘t watch. 

Maybe nobody liked her anymore, 

well aside from Four (even though he just avoided her right now). 

But he too hadn‘t tried to show him the library or even hung out with her for some time now. Maybe he expected her to go to him and she messed up by not realising…

God she needed another pill. 

She entered the (normal) library a bit after One, Two, Three, Five and Six, Four being nowhere in sight. He probably didn’t want to be near them after that mess of a lesson and in all honesty, she didn’t either, so instead of reading with Six, she simply made her way to the back section of the library with the intend to  hide stay there for a bit to calm down. 

What Seven didn‘t expect was for Four to already be there and read a book that looked older than Sir, in a language that looked like english but had dots above some letters and something that looked like a misshapen B. 

Four had his back to her and didn’t seem to notice her (as far as she knew, maybe he was ignoring her  _ and wanted her gone too _ —) so she snuck up behind him to at least try and read it. 

She got closer and closer, 

Step

By

Step. 

But then, just when she was almost so close that she could snatch the book away, he jerked upright and turned toward her. Seven was fairly sure that she hadn’t made a noise, so how was that possible? 

She was about to ask him about it but was interrupted before she could even open her mouth (that also seemed to happen a lot, maybe they just _ don’t want to hear her annoying voice _ ).

“Hey! Seven, hi, what are you doing here, dear sister? Wouldn’t Six be a  _ way  _ better reading buddy?” 

He sounded… nervous, Four was never nervous, or anxious, or anything other than confident for that matter. 

His nervousness made her so too. What would  _ Four _ , Mister I-Laugh-At-The-Image-Of-Corpses, be afraid of? Especially in the library, that he apparently actually visited. 

She had so many questions but he asked her something first, a question she was supposed to answer with more than a nod, at that. 

Seven didn’t want to be honest and seem  _ fragile _ , but also didn’t know what lie would impress him. 

Nobody knew for certain what would impress Four. He didn’t like their siblings’ powers and she had  _ even less  _ than them. 

Then the idea struck her. 

She may not have a power, but she  _ did _ have something no one else did: 

Musical talent. 

“Well, I don’t know the way to the”, she lowered her voice significantly, because in her opinion, she started that sentence  _ way  _ too loud, “ _ you know what _ and was hoping to find some sheet music here.” She squared her shoulders and waited for his response, proud that her voice didn’t waver and reveal her half-lie. 

“We can go right now if you want, I was just about done with  _ this _ ”, he made a flippant gesture in the general direction of the book, which he did not in fact look done with. 

“That would be alright, right?”. 

That last part wasn’t addressed to her, Four looked a bit too far to the left for that. 

Was there somebody else here? 

She looked toward the general direction Four was looking at but saw nothing aside from an endless sea of books, how strange…

Nevertheless, she had an answer that wasn’t a rejection, so Seven had to take it. 

“Yeah right now would be good.” 

And so they made their way into the endless corridors – somehow without being noticed – again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the... hiatus... aside, how was this chapter? I’m personally not really satisfied with the characterisation, but I’ll have to live with it :,)  
> Anyway, have a great day (even if the world has gone to shit). :)


	7. What is this Place?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vague library scene and maybe(?) some foreshadowing.

To say Seven was confused would be a complete understatement. 

“Hey, um, Four? Where are we going? This isn’t the way we went last time…” 

Not that she actually remembered how the corridors really looked like that time but she highly doubted that Four did either.

Said brother didn’t slow down the slightest and simply responded with a “Just trust me on this”. 

It seemed like she didn’t have a say in the matter anyway, she didn’t know where they were in relation to the rest of the home and it’s not like she could just teleport back into her room. She kind of wished she wasn’t alone with Four here and oh god he would probably hate her for even thinking about that. Moments like these were the only times she was thankful for neither of them having powers. Especially something as invasive as mind reading. 

For her it’d probably be hell, being a mind reader. She really doesn’t want to hear her siblings thinking about how much they dislike her. 

“—ven? Seven? Are you still there?” Four was waving his hands in front of her face to get her attention. How long had he been doing that? 

“We’re there! Do you want to come in or not? We can go back if you changed your mind somewhere along the mental soliloquy,” he giggled out the last part and looked slightly to the right, as if he didn’t want to look at her face, again.

“What’s a soliloquy?” The big words were Five’s job. 

“I think it's a form of monologue”, came a strangely clipped response. 

“How do you kn—“ 

“Come on, before the others actually notice that we aren’t there!” 

And with that, Seven was dragged into a room that was the same as last time but completely different nonetheless. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


The library was as much a mystery to Four as it was to Seven. The only thing he knew about it, was that it had something to do with ‘timelines’ and ‘what could’ve been’ or at least that’s what a ghost that used to live across the street from the academy a long time ago, when it was still an actual Umbrella factory, claimed. They didn’t seem as deranged as some other ghost from around that time, so Four took their word at face value. Though he’d have to ask Gavin about it later on. 

Speaking of the ghost, he has been weirdly quiet every time they entered the library, even his very active and slightly (read: majorly) annoying prattling conversation with Ashley came to an abrupt stop as Four dragged Seven into the library for the second time in their lives. 

He’d have to ask about that too, how did anyone expect him to remember all of this? That’s kinda unfair, in his opinion. 

But all that was for another time and place, the only thing that mattered right now was the abundance of sheet music for any instrument imaginable – he’s pretty sure he saw some folders for a hollowed out log – that was completely  _ wasted  _ in this nomansland. 

But no more! Because there is no way they’d leave as empty handed as last time. No, in comparison, they’d leave with at least ten times the amount of anything they could get their hands on. 

“Hey Four?” 

He shivered as he passed through some of the ruder ghosts to get to Seven and see what was going on.

“Yeah? Is everything alright there, sis?”

He saw that she was looking really intently a bunch of booklets she was carrying in her arms and frowning at them.

“What is the matter?” 

She lifted her head and set the stack down on a quite conveniently placed table, stared at it for a moment and then (finally) at Four. With how pinched her expression was, one would think that he just tried to sell her fools gold. But where would he even get that from? They’re barely allowed to go into the courtyard and that’s still on property… and his thoughts are trailing off again.

“Well, this is supposed to be a library, right?”

Four made a sound that was supposed to convey the sentiment of ‘duh’ without hurting Sevens feelings. 

“These sheets look too good to have been in use…” No comment, looks like he succeeded. 

But Seven was getting suspicious and we couldn’t have that. 

“I mean, nobody aside from us even knows about this place.” He made sure to pointedly focus on Seven and ignore the chuckle that went through the undead crowd surrounding them at that. “So yeah, these sheets haven’t been in use.” 

And with that she visibly wilted again and now Four was the asshole. He was really giving the majority of his siblings a run for their money today. And not in a good way. 

“Come on! Say something or she’ll be too embarrassed to do anything around you, let alone play music with you!” What did he do to deserve Gavin? That man was too good for anyone and anything – not that he’ll ever tell him that, Gavin will just have to pick up on the context clues! 

Okay, back to his sister in internal distress.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You just asked a normal question! I’m not gonna tell you that you shouldn’t do that. Do I look like an ageless geezer with a monocle and cane to you?” He really hoped that insulting the unnamed shithead would lift the mood. 

Her shoulders lowered and now she was sporting a small smile. Two for two, Four was really on a roll today! 

She turned to the conveniently placed table and carefully picked up the stack of sheet music. 

“Alright, I think I got everything I need.” With that she headed to the door. 

Or well, where the door previously was. 

“Um, Four?” Her shoulders were hiked up all the way to her ears, that couldn’t be healthy. “W-where is the door?” 

Yeah, she had a point. Where was it? 

He faced the ghost crowd and pleaded solely with his mimic for an answer that didn’t involve ‘sorry, it’s gone forever’. 

“Don worry, kid. Ih’ll re’urn. Jus wai’ a bi’” If he didn’t deserve Gavin for being an actual brother when most of his siblings lacked in that field, then he sure as hell didn’t deserve Ashley for basically being the only source of snark in this whole city block that loses their mind from time to time. Some of the older ghosts are just a step away from turning into Geister and he definitely has enough of those following him around.

“We don’t have time for that!” he tried  and failed  to stage-whisper. 

“Time for what?” Man, Seven was filled to the brim with scepticism today… 

“Oh, nothing, I think I’ll just take a nap over there”, he pointed somewhere behind him, he was pretty sure it was inside a bookcase, but he has done stranger stuff and gotten away with it. “Wake me when the door reappears, Schwester!”

And into the depths of the library he went again. 

“What’s your plan?” 

“You see, Gavy Gravy, I don’t wanna tell you because you’ll just say it’s dumb” 

Somewhere behind him, Ashley let out what sounded like squak. 

“If you already know that I’d deem it to be stupid then it is and don’t try it.”

Four tried it out. 

As soon as he was far away enough from Seven, he sat down and tried falling, not real falling of course, he was sitting after all. No, the falling he tried was the kind where he’d fall out of his own body. 

How did he do that again? It was moments like this that he kind of regretted hiding his power(s?)

Maybe he should think  _ really hard  _ about falling and it’ll just happen again? How did Five control when to teleport and where to? Was that even the same thing? How similar to the others were his powers actually? Maybe– 

“Four! She’s headed here!” A ghost further away yelled over and as soon as those words reached him he snapped his eyes open, just to see a faint red glows dissipate. He almost had it! God, he could scream, but first he had to pretend to be asleep. 

Easier said than done. The thing about sleeping is that it’s (hopefully) natural so there’s no way to know what kind of position your body is in, let alone how it got there.

All in all this resulted in Four taking up the most unnecessarily complicated position he could’ve gone for: he was lying flat on his back, both elbows bent but the hands showing in different directions, the left leg upright and bent at the knee, while the right leg was completely straight and sprawled out to the side. The cherry on top was that his mouth was comically wide open and he was  _ definitely  _ overdoing it with the loudest snoring the boy could manage. 

That’ll convince her. 

* * *

She didn’t mean to be insulting her brother or even doubt his intentions, god knows he had done a lot of things for her these past few days. She was incredibly grateful! 

but this… she would be way more of a disappointment then she already was, if she didn’t at least  _ question _ what was going on here. That position just couldn’t be natural. 

“Four, wake up?” and he presumably did. 

“What is it, sis?” he asked while stretching his arms above his head and popped his shoulders. Maybe he was sleeping after all.

But then came the worst yawn she ever heard and she literally lived with Four for her entire life. She knew what fake yawns sounded like, especially the ones frequently done by Four in an attempt to skip out on anything and everything one could skip out on. 

Alright, there went any kid of doubt, right out of the nonexistent window. 

No napping whatsoever was done in the past half an hour.

He was lying to her. Of course he would lie to her, she kind of had the idea that this was way too good to be true. She should’ve enjoyed it while it lasted. 

Trying to pull herself out of her stupor, Seven almost forgot proper sentence structure was a thing.

“Door’s back” she really hoped that her pointing both her arms in the vague direction of the exit didn’t look half as awkward and stilted as it felt. 

Though it didn’t seem like it mattered all that much because from one second to the next Seven was being dragged by her hand outside the library at a speed that made it hard for her to properly hold on to the sheet music. At least she actually grabbed hers. 

“Hey, you forgot your everything!” she almost screamed as a result of being dragged along as well the anxiety looking back at the quickly distancing entrance of the library. 

He simply made a flippant gesture with his unoccupied hand — she could’ve sworn it should’ve been  _ at least  _ filled to the brim with some kind of notation — and mumbled something along the lines of getting it later, however he might go about doing that.

She had no idea whatsoever, why he flipped so much in the last minute, but she also  _ really _ didn’t want to ask and risk accidentally offending him. So here she was, getting pulled along in the vague direction of the entrance hall. 

  
All in all, it was one of the stranger afternoons in recent times and  _ that  _ had to mean something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this was sucha short chapter after such a logn break. What can I say, I just really lacked motivation and time these last few months, with actually attending school in person during a _pandemic _! Ahem, anyway, everything aside how'd you like the chapter?_  
>  Have a great day/night/whenever you're reading this!   
> <3_

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello! This is my first work in this fandom and I can guarantee that it’ll be a long ride! I hope you’ll enjoy it and have a nice day/night! :)   
> (Also I’ll may or may not update irregularly because I have no semblance of a schedule in life)


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